Tag Archives: Illinois

Toyota’s hydrogen fuel cell vehicle has gotten a lot of hype this year. Now it has lived up to, and blown away, all expectations. The Mirai got its NASCAR debut at the Sprint Cup April 25th. As the pace car, the Mirai led the pack up to the start of the race, water dripping all the way.

The Toyota Mirai is one of the first hydrogen fuel cell vehicles to officially hit roadways. The 2016 vehicle proved it had what it takes under the hood to lead 43 race cars onto the track after going through a performance test. The Mirai NASCAR debut is a first for hydrogen fuel cell vehicles.

“Having a hydrogen fuel-cell vehicle pace the Toyota Owners 400 is a historic moment for both Toyota and NASCAR, and we’re proud it’s the Toyota Mirai,” said Ed Laukes, vice president of marketing, performance and guest experience, Toyota Motor Sales.

The Toyota Mirai will be available in California mid-2015 and slowly spread across the country as hydrogen refueling infrastructure spreads. The car refuels in about five minutes and can get up to 300 miles a tank. This isn’t the first time Toyota’s brought alternative fuel to NASCAR. In 2009 the Camry Hybrid led the Coca Cola 600.

With Toyota taking more steps in innovation, Bill Walsh Toyota is ready to offer the best of the best to you.

April is National Distracted Driving Awareness Month. For Toyota, that means it’s time to double down, not just on awareness, but on action as well. For the fourth straight year, Toyota and Discovery Education have partnered on the Toyota TeenDrive365 Video Challenge, which tasks teenage filmmakers to make short films that inspire safe driving practices. The videos are made by teenagers and aimed at a teenage audience as well.

The challenge received over 1,000 entries this year, but Toyota and Discovery Education recently narrowed the field down to ten finalists. After April 30, the winners of the First Place, Second Place, and Third Place awards will be named. First place comes with a $15,000 cash prize, with lesser cash prizes for the rest.

However, you, the loyal customers, have a chance to participate in the voting as well. From now until April 30, you can go online, watch all the finalists, and vote for your favorite. The video with the most votes will win the People’s Choice Award, which comes with a $5,000 cash prize and a visit to a Velocity network show.

“At Toyota we believe that when good ideas are shared great things can happen. We applaud the teens who entered the challenge to share their vision to improve safe driving among their peers,” said Michael Rouse, President of the Toyota U.S.A. Foundation.

To learn more about a brand that cares this much about teenage drivers and safety overall, come see us here at Bill Walsh Toyota. We’ll even tell you about the upcoming Toyota Safety Sense package, which will be used on small U.S. vehicles by 2017.

Toyota has always been a leader in the hybrid segment. Now, the Japanese carmaker has become a leader in the safety category, as well. During the 2016 Toyota RAV4 Hybrid debut, Toyota not only introduced the first hybrid in the crossover segment—it also introduced a new, affordable suite of safety technologies that is sure to make a big impact on the industry.

The RAV4 Hybrid showed off its innovative powertrain, which combined a 2.5-liter four-cylinder engine with two motors, while also showcasing Toyota’s brand-new Toyota Safety Sense program. This new program is a suite of safety features that will keep both you and your passengers safe. It includes a Pre-Collision System with Pedestrian Detection, Lane Departure Alert, Automatic Hi-Beams, and Dynamic Radar Cruise Control all for the extraordinarily low price of just $500.

Along with its innovative powertrain and safety system, the RAV4 Hybrid also offers an All-Wheel-Drive system for those who plan on going off road while being eco-friendly. If you are interested in learning more about the innovative Toyota Safety Sense program or the 2016 RAV4 Hybrid crossover, contact Bill Walsh Toyota today.

We’ve all seen it—someone sitting in their car and doing some serious multi-tasking: driving, texting, eating, and who knows what else. While being this productive can be good in other parts of your life; behind the wheel, it is extremely dangerous.

April is national Distracted Driver Awareness month and we’re going to share some valuable tips that we hope will help make you a more conscious driver.

One of the primary culprits in distracted driving is, of course, your phone. It can be hard to ignore that little jingle from your phone, but making safety a priority will keep you and those around you safer. Did you know that at any moment in the United States, there are 660,000 drivers using a phone behind the wheel? These drivers are at least three times more likely to get into an accident than those who aren’t distracted.

In addition to phone use, distracted driving includes eating behind the wheel, adjusting your radio, grooming, and even talking to passengers. While some of these activities are nearly unavoidable (you probably have to talk to your kids in the backseat from time to time), you should make every effort to stay focused on the road.

One simple way to do this is to put your phone away and only use it while you’re parked. You can also commit to not doing other things, like eating, while you’re driving. With a few simple changes, you can keep yourself and drivers around you a little bit safer.

April is Car Care Month, a time of the year to really pay attention to your car’s needs and make sure everything is running smoothly and effectively. One of the most important parts in any vehicle is that of the engine that keeps it running.

To guide you this month, we’ve put together a short list of battery maintenance tips:

Remember that overcharging, and undercharging can contribute to the battery’s decay over time. Try to avoid these behaviors as much as possible.

Park in a garage over the winter instead of outside, which will keep the engine from getting too cold.

Keep the engine clean by removing the clamps and wiping away grease, dirt and oxidation.

Make sure your battery is secure in its spot by keeping the battery tray clean and occasionally checking up on its position.

And of course – have a professional check out your entire car routinely to spot anything you may have missed.

Do you have any other great car engine maintenance tips? Let us know what you think in the comments.

Toyota recently stormed a TED conference to see what the people prone to think about such things might think about the Toyota i-Road. The response was favorable, to say the least.

The i-Road is a personal mobility vehicle—a vehicle that seeks to a part of the transportation solution rather than being part of the transportation problem. That problem includes issues like emission pollution, hyper-congestion, overcrowding, noise pollution, among many others.

How does the i-Road solve these things? First of all, it does so by being small. You could describe it as Phys.org did, as “a cross between a zippy scooter and an eco-friendly electric car.” It’s all-electric, rides on three wheels (two up front, one in the rear). A three-hour charge will get you 30 miles of range.

The most brilliant aspect of the i-Road is just how fun it is to drive. That’s important with green vehicles because it makes them that much more appealing. Jason Schulz of Toyota Motor Sales USA, who was on-hand for the tests at TED, said, “It is just a total blast to drive. We have seen so many ‘Tedsters’ come out of the car smiling and happy.”

Fifty years ago this month, the historic freedom march from Selma to Montgomery took place in order to take a stand for the civil rights of African Americans. In honor of that event, Toyota introduced “50 for 50,” donating $50,000 to four historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) in Alabama.

Each of the colleges—Alabama State University, Alabama A&M University, Selma University, and Tuskegee University—played an important role in fighting for civil rights. It was students from these schools who participated in the 54-mile march.

A check donation ceremony was held during a luncheon on Alabama State University’s campus where representatives from each college attended.

“Toyota has a long-standing commitment to the pursuit of education and partnering with historically black colleges and universities,” said Adrienne Trimble, Toyota North America’s general manager of Diversity & Inclusion. “On this historic occasion, we wanted to recognize the four Alabama schools that played an integral part in the march five decades ago. Through this donation, we strive to support each school’s commitment to developing the next generation of leaders and working to make the world a better place.”

We at Bill Walsh Toyota are excited to see the results of Toyota’s support of these universities as the students continue to make a difference in today’s world as did the students who came before them 50 years ago.

Toyota recently shifted gears as a company in an effort to restructure and vary its leadership positions. The management team will become more diversified this year with the promotion of Julie Hamp to be the first Toyota female executive, Christopher Reynolds as the first African-American exec, and European Didier Leroy to the be the first foreigner to serve as EVP. Toyota as a company seeks to gain strength from the internal moves.

Toyota states, “by appointing talented people from affiliates outside Japan to executive positions, Toyota aims to foster innovation by enabling people from many different backgrounds to contribute and provide input.”

Toyota has crossed the Rubicon and is no longer just a Japanese carmaker, but a global car manufacturer with far-ranging leadership needs and requirements. Steering away from all-Japanese male decision-makers towards a more diversified leadership cadre will allow Toyota to find that “next-gear” and race into the future with refreshed vigor.

We at Bill Walsh Toyota are proud to be a part of such a great organization, and look forward to an even brighter future.

Toyota is opening its doors to the public, showcasing the production of the new Mirai in a series of videos. People now have an opportunity to see how Toyota’s first production fuel-cell vehicle is manufactured, an incredibly complex and interesting process.

The videos show a surprisingly small staff in Toyota City, Japan putting together the new Mirai, essentially by hand. This is to ensure that there are no flaws on the hydrogen powered sedan, said Toyota. Although it means that only about three cars per day are made, this is enough to keep up with the limited release.

“For us, [the Mirai] marks a new start,” said Toyota’s president, Akio Toyoda. “This is not to reflect on the past, but rather to celebrate Toyota’s new start, where we take a fresh step towards the future.”

The Mirai represents the culmination of Toyota fuel-cell technology. Right now, only select parts of the world have the infrastructure for hydrogen cars (a.k.a. hydrogen filling stations) such as certain regions of California. As soon as more places embrace this new eco-friendly technology, Toyota can hit the ground running with the revolutionary Mirai.